280: A New Recipe Experience - Getting Started with SideChef with Sandie Markle

Foreign.

Hello. Hello, and welcome to this episode of the Food Blogger Pro Podcast. My name is Alexa and I'm part of the Food Blogger Pro team here, and we are so excited you decided to join in and listen to this episode today. Because today on the podcast, you'll hear about a tool called Side Chef, and it's a platform that's aimed at making the cooking experience easier for its users. So with a customer custom app and tailored cooking experiences and dynamic recipe guidance, Side Chef wants to make the whole cooking journey easier. Sandy Markle, who is Side Chef's director of content partnerships, is going to be interviewed here today on the podcast, and she'll share more about how Side Chef helps their users with meal planning, grocery delivery, and smart kitchen connectivity, as well as how bloggers, content creators, and influencers like you, you can get involved with their micro influencer program. It's a really cool idea for a platform, and we're excited to help you learn more about it in today's episode. So without any further ado, Bjork, take it away.

Sandy. Welcome to the podcast.

It's so great to be here. I'm so excited.

So this is. You're going to. You're gonna win a record for the Food Blogger Pro podcast. We were just chatting a little bit about where we are and where we're recording from, and I was like, twin Cities. And then I said, how about you? And your answer was, you can tell.

The audience I'm broadcasting from Shanghai, China, where. Yes.

Oh, that is so awesome. And it is 5:00am yes.

Yeah. Food Blogger Pro.

It is the official, earliest ever recording for a podcast for the Food Blogger Pro podcast. So I'm curious to know what brings you. I know that the side Chef story is one where it's kind of a distributed company. Is that your reason for being in Shanghai, or is there another reason that you're there?

Actually, it kind of all worked out. I kind of was in the accounting field for about 10 years. And I'm originally from Miami. And in Miami, it's really not uncommon to speak more than one language. My family's from Haiti, so I do speak multiple languages. And in Miami, you know, Spanish, Haitian Creole, a lot of different languages there. And the Chinese population is pretty vast there as well. And so I just started to kind of learning on my own. And then when I got married, my husband and I decided to move to Shanghai. And then a few months Later, I found SideChef, and that was almost six years ago.

That is awesome. So tell us a little bit about sidechef I've had a couple conversations with some team members from sidechef and I know that came out as an app and now it's starting to evolve a little bit, which we're gonna get into. Kind of talk about this idea of content and how people can be putting content in multiple places. Some of the thoughts that we've had around that. But what about sidechef as a business? What does that look like in terms of kind of the different evolutions that they've gone through over the years?

Yeah. So when Sidechef launched in 2013, kind of Sidechef 1.0, it really was launched as a mobile app like you said, and really to gamify the cooking experience. Our founder and CEO Kevin Yu, he really created Sideship to help himself first, which is to learn how to cook over the years. Now that we are at Sideshow 5.0, which recently launched, it's now a really holistic platform which includes web app shopping and extensive tech integrations. We've actually moved past just being a mobile app. So Sideshow as a company is actually split now between our consumer facing side and our B2B arm, which we've really strengthened over the years. And so we're now able to, we've closed the loop in our end to end experience from just the aspiration to cook to now sitting down and having a meal. So like now we have like custom apps, cooking software, tailored cooking experiences, and you know, now you know, side chef is a great place to cook.

So when you say end to end, what do you mean by that? For those who aren't familiar with that term.

So, but end to end to end really means like, you know, like I just said, like from the moment you decide, hey, what's for dinner? And then you go, if the cooking journey begins. So you say to yourself, okay, I want to make something. And then you say, okay, then the search so you can go on to sidechef. And now you can browse through recipes and then once you selected the recipe that you want to make, what do you need next? Well, you need ingredients. So we also launched a grocery integration two years ago where now you can. The ingredients are now shoppable. And then you get your ingredients and now say it's a new recipe or you're just not familiar with just cooking in general. Our guided cooking experience, which has been around since 1.0 and has increasingly advanced over the years, then we can guide you step by step. You know, we have really tailored articles and tips to guide you through the cooking process. Even, you know, shopping lists, etc. And then now you're sitting down to a meal. So with. So that's what we mean by end to end, from the beginning to the end. So that it doesn't just stop at search or just stop at finding a recipe.

Sure, yeah. It's interesting. One of the things that I've been thinking about as it relates to the work that we're doing with Pinch of Yum. So Pinch of Yum being, you know, we have Food Blogger Pro where we speak to bloggers, and then we have Pinch of Yam where we're speaking to essentially people who are interested in food. Vast market.

Yeah, yeah.

But one of the things for Pinch of Yum that we're thinking a lot about is what does it look like for us to distribute the content that we have into multiple places so we create something. We're still very blog centric at Pinch of Yum. It's the primary way that we're creating income. We create income from ads. Ads secondary would be sponsored content. So on Instagram primarily. And then if a brand wants to sponsor something that we're doing on the blog, we get create and we get income from that. But we're starting to see some other recipe specific platforms that are offering creators the ability to kind of rebrand, not rebrand, but it's essentially syndicating in a way the content that they have into other places. And there's a lot of considerations and a lot of questions and a lot of potentially concerns that creators would have when they think about what that might look like to put their content into other places and would love to talk about a few of those things. So at a high level, if I'm a food blogger, if I'm a creator, what does that look like for me to consider the potential of putting my content on the sidechef? What does that mean and how does that work?

Okay, cool. Yeah. So when partners think about joining with us or we reach out to them, usually partners license their content onto our platforms for greater exposure across a wide array of platforms outside of web and their blog. So we, like I mentioned before, through our grocery integration, we have grocery revenue based on shoppable recipe engagement. So initially we launched with Amazon Fresh and we are rolling out with new grocery partners very, very soon just to widen the, the pool of diversifying this passive income stream. I will say that in 2018, when we first, well actually when I first started in 2014, we always wanted grocery delivery because it's always, it's a part of the End to end process, but the market wasn't ready for it. Here in China, grocery delivery is like very democratized. It's like a way of life. But a lot of people in America before 2020, you know, they just thought it was super niche also, you know, even the brands that were doing grocery delivery, they just weren't doing it at the volume that they needed to do it right now. And so a lot of people, they like going to the grocery store, they felt like they were in control. You know, they had, they wanted to see the products that they were there was, they're buying.

So people experiential. For a lot of people right here that I want to pick up the mango and see, like, is this a good mango? I don't want somebody else to do it.

Exactly. So early adoption is very slow. But as we know, a lot of people are trying new things this year and it really has revved up people's, you know, willing to try grocery delivery this year. So it was kind of a slow uptick, but we always knew that, that there would be a moment where the, you know, the tides would turn. Unfortunately, the reason is not super positive, but nevertheless, you know, it really gives people a core entry point to try it out and to retain. So we're seeing like, you know, an uptick of people, you know, really engaging with this recipe. So this was a core, this is a core passive income stream that has already been embedded into the recipes. And all of our partners have an opportunity to participate in that. And so also as our company has grown, opportunities for our partners have also grown. So although we don't pay an onboarding initial licensing fee for content, there are advantages to sharing recipes on flychip from the start. So for example, like when you think about licensing just in general, so licensing onto sideshef has a more accessible entry point to publishing your recipes, more so than like the traditional way, like from your blog or social channels. Like, for example, if someone had aspirations of being commissioned to be a contributor to a food digital publication that has worldwide influence and readership, a lot of these publications receive hundreds of pitches and they do a lot of their own content as well. And so often it can be about like who you know it could you know or where you've previously published or how high your social following is. But at side chef, we're really inviting nano and micro influencers to really let us be the first step in publishing outside of their channels and to grow with us. And so we don't, you know, and that's kind of you know, one of the biggest ways we provide because we actually, you know, we have really grown and the opportunities have grown too. And so we're providing that opportunity not just in the mobile app. I think, you know, we're trying to provide greater awareness about the different platforms that Sideshow is in now. So, you know, we are not just an app where on the Amazon Alexa, you know, we're on Samsung, Bixby, we've had different partnerships with different large kitchen appliance brands and we're on Facebook portal right now. So all of these different types of platforms have a different way to optimize your content. Just like for example, if on your blog, you know, you optimize your content to be as engaging for, you know, followers, home cooks to engage with the content on that platform and through search optimization. Right. You know, we're trying to, everybody's like trying to slay the Google algorithm and try to be, try to be found. And so you optimize your content for that or we optimize the traditional recipe into our signature format as well. And so when we kind of bring on partners, you know, we don't just, it's not a one to one thing. We do optimize our, their content to be a product fit. The bulk of it is the same. It's not, we're not changing anyone's recipes or anything like that. But you know, the platforms are different and the way people engage with the content is different and it's really making it creating greater opportunities to, you know, diversify income opportunities through these different platforms. Platforms that maybe they're not super familiar with.

Sure, yeah, it's interesting. I'm going to see if I can break down some of that and let me know if this is accurate. Kind of accurate or completely off. So one of the things that you had talked about is your signature, I forget what you called it, but like signature type of content.

Recipe format.

Yeah, the format. And by that do you mean essentially very much so like step by step direction. Direction oriented as opposed to maybe just writing or just photos. Like it's step one, here's a picture, here's the directions. Step two, here's a picture, here's the directions. In super simple terms, is that what you're getting at?

That's one part of it, which is one part of the. We call it the smart recipe format. So the reason why we call it that is because it's not just step by step photos, which a lot of great bloggers do, but also when you talk about smart, it's not like the recipes are done before, but the idea of smart in the age of the modern age means connected. So what makes our smartphone smart is that it's connected. We have geolocation, we have a lot of data associated with it. And the same is true with our recipes. So, you know, once we optimize partner content into our format, it's not just transposing information now it's full of data about the way home cooks engage with the recipe. It's full of data about, you know, what everyone's intent is as well. And then it's also through our smart kitchen appliance integrations, it's also connected to appliances as well. And then it also makes the guided experience very holistic. So we've, over the years that I've been on side Chef at side Chef, you know, we've really worked very hard to refine the guided cooking experience, also to remove barriers to the cooking process.

So what is, when you say guided recipe experience, what does that mean? Because I think that's a really interesting thing change that's happening and you can see that within the app. But I'm guessing that plays out in other ways as well.

Absolutely. So, you know, I did a really intense kind of research around that, just because that's what I've been doing for the last six years. But about like what it means, that guided experience. So when you think about cooking in general, when people cook together or how you learn to cook, it's really about building intuition. And so how do you build intuition? You learn, you get tips. But people don't want to feel like they're working with a device. So we really have, you know, really personalized the experience with voice guidance. Hands free. Voice guidance is something we've had from the start, which has always been really cool. So through the app you just say, okay, what's the next step? You know, and then it goes to the next step also really there's rest recipe specific tips, like step tips, but also there's tips about the ingredients, you know, like how to store it. And these are things, of course, you can find everywhere. But when it's, when it's like when you need it, that's really the trigger, you know, that can really make people feel like they can make something happen. With this recipe, like the worst thing that could happen is, you know, in a recipe it says, you know, take the pot out of the oven and it never told you to put it in there to begin with. So we were really removing barriers and building that intuition because we Want to build confidence as well and also make people feel like, well, we're right by their side, we're there when they need us. So everybody's cooking level is different, everybody's cooking needs are different. So, you know, if you don't need kind of the step by step guidance, we have overview, we have animated gifs because you need to see like how things are, what they're supposed to look like. A lot of the times, you know, you have this experience where you're like, is it supposed to look like this? You know. And so I think that's why from the very beginning we knew that having this step by step experiences is important. And even when it comes to integrated or connected devices like the home hubs that are coming out, GE and the connected microwaves and etc. There's a learning curve associated with those things as well. And so as these appliances start to be democratized and they start coming into, you know, small domestic appliances, like people need that guidance. And like, one thing I always say, you know, that our CEO says at times is, you know, why people cook will never change how they cook will.

Sure.

How they cook. Well, yeah, Yep.

Yeah. And you can, you can imagine that as a really obvious example. How many recipes are people will get from the Internet now versus how many recipes they got from the Internet 20 years ago. It's easy to give those kind of extreme contrast examples over a large amount of time, like 20 years. But to say, what does that look like to think now strategically? And we, you know, 10 years ago, pinch of yum started probably at a point where it's like people were making recipes online for sure, but probably not as much as they are right now. And to your point, people will be making recipes off of a device and Echo Google device with a screen, a screen on the refrigerator, a screen on their microwave, whatever. It might be much more in 10 years than they will be or even in five years than they are right now. So that makes a lot of sense. I think people can understand that and kind of track along with that. One of the questions that I have as it relates to that process is other than exposure, which is still an important thing, what does that look like for a creator to, let's say rank number one for a search term on an Echo device, and I'm not saying the full name, so everybody's device doesn't trigger, but like, what does that look like on a Google or an Amazon screen device that is in your house to rank for that keyword? Does that do anything from a Monetary perspective. Can you run ads? Is that coming down the line? How does that work?

Yeah, great question. So the cool thing about being at side chef is we're innovating as our large partners are innovating as well. And so one of the cool things about, for example, the Amazon Echo is an interesting stat. When the Gen1 of the Amazon came out, it did not have a screen, it was just like a speaker. So after the first year or so after their data came back, they noticed that a majority of users were using it in their kitchen. And so we were approached by them to be one of a few selected partners to kind of put, you know, be the first kind of recipe content and kind of really early adopting into this platform. And so we optimize our content, the content on our platform, on our mobile app to now appear on the Amazon Echo. And so the data around that is still kind of coming in as far as engagement because they're also rolling out with new like skills. Now we have the sideshift skill as well on the Amazon Echo. So I think one of the cool things about being a partner as well is we provide data insights to our partners that are specific not only to the platform at large, but we also, because we really want to empower people to make better decisions using data. And I'm not a data analyst, but just being, you know, familiarizing myself with like how recipe engagement works in these different platforms, you really can decide, like, because the way people engage maybe on blog sites may not be the same audience for the different platforms. And could you potentially share a certain recipe that's more successful on this platform? And as far as like monetization opportunities, we really encourage people to early adopt because in the past that's been successful for other platforms like YouTube for example. Example, like in the beginning, like people just like went on YouTube like, oh, fun, like I could show myself. But then a monetization model was embedded, like a CPA model, where now it's like everybody's going on YouTube to make money. But the people who early adopted to it, you know, kind of had like seniority kind of, and they had already built a following. So once the monetization model came about, like, boom, you know. And so I think a lot more platforms that have kind of slowly started, like facebookordal maybe, definitely Amazon Echo, there will be income streams in those things. So I think that once as we're providing data insights to our partners, we're trying to help them to understand how to increase their engagement so that when more opportunities come, where Those things, because once the monetization model comes on, then boom, the market's gonna be saturated. Like, everybody's gonna jump on board. And as we see now, a grocery delivery.

Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, it's a really interesting observation in economics and risk and as a creator being bandwidth time limited, there's an analysis of, hey, is there an area that I want to take a risk on, betting that this is going to be an opportunity? And if you bet on an area that you deploy time and energy against to build an early following and scale, then you will be at a strategic advantage when there is a point where it turns on monetization. Because as you said, economically, once there is margin or profit or revenue, then suddenly the, you know, supply changes. And if there isn't an incentive, people are going to be less incentivized to create. And so you kind of are taking a risk there in creating that early content. And if you bet on that and get ahead of it, then you're going to be at a strategic advantage, especially if you're able to create really good content for that platform. Like, it's not like just throwing something up there will suddenly get you traction. So as it relates to that, is there anything different around kind of the step by step process content creation that is really specific to side chef versus how many people might be approaching content, or at least how we would approach content, which is like, hey, we're going to have three to four pictures in a blog post. We're going to have the recipe, maybe we're going to have one on Instagram and then Instagram stories. How do you have to shift your concept mindset in order to create good kind of step by step content for an app or for a platform like sidechef?

Okay, cool question. Yeah. So one of the things that we really, I think like a few years ago, we really overhauled kind of our recipe guideline. We were kind of just like kind of doing it along the way. But we never really, like said, okay, this is the CYTF standard, which we did a few years back. So we really tried to think about, like I said, these barriers and triggers to cooking. And a lot of the times when we get partner recipes, the recipes in a cookbook or a blog post, sometimes it's for brevity sake. It's kind of condensed, you know, like maybe a few steps, you know, because like, people don't want to be reading like a bunch of stuff and, you know, just. And then, you know, you have all the beautiful pictures and stuff like that. But we found out like it was not actually step by step. And so sometimes when we optimize our recipes, we break the steps down because, you know, it's really not, it's almost like too much information in one step to really make it step by step. And that's okay for the website because, you know, sometimes people look at the recipe and. But when it's really like on a device like an Echo or our mobile device or the Facebook port, for example, that's something that we really look at. And also one of the things we ask ourselves is because in our company we're like totally foodies. So we're not just like, we're not just like workers, we're fans of all the people we have on and beyond. So we cook the recipes. We've always had a kitchen. From our 12 person startup that I started at to now our company, now in our office, we've always had a kitchen. So one of the things that, that we cook, like partner recipes or like barbers recipes that we love. One of the questions we always ask ourselves is if we asked ourselves, is this what it's supposed to look like already? That's a trigger right there.

Yeah, yeah. Essentially saying if the question comes to mind, is this what it's supposed to look like? Something has been miscommunicated along the way.

Right.

And is that with the recipe itself? You mean like if, if people get to a point where, like, is this where I'm supposed to be?

Yeah, I think also, you know, visual cues are really important, especially if it's something someone's never made before. And you know, I did a talk, a workshop last year about sensory kind of receptors and like, what is supposed to taste like, what is it supposed to smell like, what is it supposed to look like? You know, those are also the things, those cues that also help guide people along the way. And so we're really even like as we develop our own original content, we kind of really are kind of in tune with that too. Because once. Because whenever people are not successful in the recipe, it's never about them, it's about the recipe. This is not a good recipe. Right. When we optimize the content on our platform, we want to make sure all the recipes are good for the platform because we want them to go through the entire session of the recipe and feel like they're confident because we want the ultimate goal really is for your recipe, my recipe, whoever's recipe, to become their recipe. Because once they become their recipe, your macaroni and cheese recipe is Going to be my macaroni and cheese recipe at the company picnic. You know what I mean? So that's how you know you've won. You got them. And so if, if there's any blocker, then, you know, we try to kind of eliminate those. And a lot of it is along the way. So that's like a big, big thing. Yeah, totally.

This is my, this is my tangent story on that and my one claim with recipes. So for context, I have zero credibility when it comes to developing recipes. That's 1000% credit due to Lindsay and the Pinch of Yum team. But there was one recipe that I had and originally got it from Allrecipes, made a few little tweaks and changes and developed it as my pancakes recipe. And we posted it to Lindsey, posted it to Pinch of Yum, said, hey, this is, you know, Bjork's been making this recipe lately, tied back to all recipes as kind of the source of it. But it was my one, like, hey, I just want to have a little slice of the smallest pinch of Yum pie. Pinch of yam. Yeah, exactly. And then somebody was like, hey, just a heads up, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend were doing a live video and they were like, here's the pancake recipe we use. And I was like, yes, like, John Legend referenced the pancake recipe. But point being, with it, you can have these recipes that you kind of can say like, you know what, for him, he's like, this is the recipe that we make every morning. And you can kind of. That comes from feeling confident making it, having an understanding of what it should look like along the way. My question to you is, what are those indicators of a recipe that people easily understand that's clear that people feel successful when they make? Is there advice you'd give creators around what needs to be included with that?

I think, I know I'm not also a recipe developer, decades of experience, but I think actions that are really clear and concise and also not putting multiple actions in one step.

That's great. Yeah.

And I think also setting people up, you know, head notes are really important in a recipe because a lot of people use it just as a description. Sometimes people use the, the term interchangeably. But the traditional recipe concepts are really important to really lock down because it really tells people a lot about the recipe as far as maybe like diet things or special things about the recipe, also what they need. So another annoying thing that I found that really is a big barrier, a blocker is when people don't know what they need in the beginning, like, the tools and resources they need. Like, oh, my goodness, I need a Dutch oven. I'm like halfway through this thing and, like, I don't have one. Because people want the recipe to look like yours. That's like the ultimate, like, thing. You know, they connected with you as an influencer and they want to emulate you and they want to have that humble brag moment where they can share and they want their recipe to look like yours. You know, you see on Google all the time these hashtag kitchen fails. You don't, you know, they don't want that situation. So also giving everybody the heads up in the very beginning because they're scared. You know, people scan you, they scan to see. That's like the first few seconds where you got them or you don't. And if you don't tell them from the very beginning what they're going to need, that's already a disappointment for a lot of. And you lost maybe some people.

Yeah, that's great. So I kind of rabbit trailed us off into this direction of kind of talking about recipes and kind of what success looks like. Yeah, I'm interested to kind of come back to where that started, which is talking about these different ways that creators can create an income. We talked about the potential of being an early adopter on a certain platform, like some of the devices, home devices that you're seeing, and the potential to figure those out before everybody else does and those brands or companies turn on monetization, having an edge. But one of the things that you talked about is this idea of if I'm able to kind of step back a little bit, it's essentially like people who are really early on and want to create recipe content, but maybe are overwhelmed with doing that on their own blog or want to have some earlier traction by having a place where they are publishing that and already there are already people there, versus trying to get people to show up to your. To your blog. And this idea of being able to go to a platform where there already are people and create on that platform. Is that a fair assessment of kind of how you're looking at creating content on side Chef is like, hey, you can get some of that early traction by coming somewhere where there's already traction as opposed to trying to build that on your own blog, or would you describe that a little bit differently?

I would say it's kind of a shared experience because we don't see it as either, or we're just creating another opportunity, another platform to do that's kind of running in tandem, and we make sure that whatever they share on sideshift is not competing with what they're trying to do in on their sites, because it's like, there's enough to go around. So, yeah, it's just another more exposure. We're really giving new just opportunities to share in more places.

So let's say that you are a blogger. You've been working on building attraction for five to six years. You have some content that ranks well. If you're putting that content on sidechef. I think one of the concerns that people would have that I'm sure you get this question all the time, is what happens if sidechef is really established and then they take over on search or maybe take over on Pinterest for my recipe? What does that look like? And how does sidechef handle that?

Okay. Yeah, that's easy to get that question. Okay. So when we first started Sideshow, we were a app, you know, and we didn't really have a web presence right away. We just really focused on the mobile app. But, you know, for functional reasons, we had to create a website. And a lot of the technology that we've created Inside Chef is like diy. We've literally, like, with our engineers, we, like, build along the way. And so we've kind of been building and then as. And refining the process. So when we first rolled out our app, sorry, our web, it just kind of duped, duplicated everything. And as you know, we're learning, like, syndicated. Yeah, syndicated content and search. Everybody's learning about it. We. It was never to compete or, like, to be honest, we were paying a lot of attention to that. We're just trying to kind of, you know, create the things that would build up the company. But we always wanted to put, like, our partners, like, you know, bring awareness. Like, that was always our goal. So we've actually been working a lot on our website over the last two years, and we're finally able to now create the situation where we show partial recipes on the web because we really want to kind of focus the guided cooking experience on our mobile platform, so we really don't really need the full recipe. And we do know, like, syndicated content is actually damaging in a lot of ways to our partners. And, like, that's what we're trying to do. So now we have this situation where through, you know, our great engineers working on this, we can show partial recipes. So it's. I think it's like, only the ingredients, and then there's a link back to the partners website. And you know, we've been rolling out this. Well, you know, with tech, you have to test it out and see if there's any bugs or any weird stuff going on. So we've been rolling it out, you know, just telling a few partners here and there. But we feel like it's like a really strong right now. And we've gotten a lot of feedback from the people who have. We've been testing it out with that it actually has brought more traffic to their site, which we're happy about. And so. And we don't do, I think like some people, some brands do like no follow links or something. We don't do all that. We don't do all that. We just straight. We get the link, put it in there from your site and then like, say, for example, they search, you know, a recipe and it may be Side chef and then the partner, if they click the side chef and they see our recipe and this is click here to see full recipe. When they click in there, they're going to your site. And so we're really excited that, you know, that's kind of up and running and another way we can like really add more value to their partnerships because we do know how important that is for that for the web platform that, you know, we get, you know, they get that kind of traffic, which we've been really wanting to do so much more over the last few years. So that's kind of how we're.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. I think it's one of the. It's kind of the sweet sauce or the sweet space or the sweet spot, whatever alliteration you want to use. But it's finding ways to syndicate your content to other places that create additional revenue without cannibalizing existing revenue. And it sounds like as SideChef kind of navigates that continually is figuring out what that looks like, while also giving the opportunity for somebody who doesn't want to create their own branded blog to get traction and followers and to build on the platform. So for somebody who doesn't want to create their own site but wants to publish their recipes, they might have some potential in having a strong search presence because there's going to be more kind of authority with the site like Side Chef, that's been around for a while and might have to. To do as much work building that up and the ability to create revenue from other places as well, which is, I'm guessing, one of the things that people are most interested to hear you talk about is how does that actually work. So if you are a content creator, whether you have your own brand or you want to build on a platform like sidechef, how do you actually create revenue? And are there any even just kind of general case studies or numbers that you could share around what creators could potentially expect from the different revenue sources for side Chef?

Yeah, I do want to get a chance to kind of intro because I feel like it's related our new micro influencer program. So it's called the sidechef Collective. So we just launched it at the beginning of this year and the inspiration for this was I don't know if you're super familiar with this, but it's a beauty box service that was launched by Michelle Phan who was a kind of a YouTube beauty blogger, Ipsy. So the so Ipsy strategy is really cool because you know there's a lot of beauty box services out there and but IPSY really sought out influencers with, with their own personal brands and audiences and tracking and traction who were also beauty bloggers on YouTube and bringing them into the fold of IPSY through their open studios concept, which was basically the company's in house creator program. So what they did was they offered production resources, product samples, educational opportunities to help bloggers grow their own followings. And so they strategically placed themselves as a connector between brands who want to hit a micro audience and work with those creators who are really truly impacting buying. Because I mean I watch follow youtubers too with like hair and stuff like that. So there I feel more connected to them than a brand. So IPSY did the same people who are really impacting buying instead of just putting a beauty ad in a subway for example, and really allowing influencers to connect with those brands and vice versa. So the, the mission of the side Chef Collective, our micro influencer program is to acquire more equitably, create revenue opportunities for our partners, provide resources for more content and provide education and network opportunities. So I mentioned this in the beginning. When it comes to acquiring more equitably from our point of view, from a business point of view, to acquire and nurture relationships of all sizes is really important. So like sure, reach and following is important. It's great. Like of course, like if you, you're you know, a mid tier or mega influencer and you know, you share your content on sited and you tell people about it, it's like obviously that's a win. But we don't just limit ourselves to those types of influencers because we want people to grow and learn from us and with Us and just as we grow and learn from them. And I think casting a wider net keeps us from focusing on a lot of barriers that new bloggers might experience, which is like needing a certain amount of followers, needing prior publication of a recipe. Like, we don't, we don't limit ourselves to that because there's a lot of great people who are doing some great stuff. And in the end, like we're trying to get people to cook. You know, that's really our goal. Our second mission, which with regard to revenue, so while we don't initially pay like, like initial licensing fee up front, besides the passive income revenue that can be earned through grocery, we don't require exclusivity. It's not like you're like, okay, you share on side chef and you can't share anything else. We want to build a program that would ensure even greater potential revenue earnings for our partners. Also through our work on our B2B side, like we've really strengthened that over the years. So we bring partner recipes to brands like LG and et Cetera. And those initial relationships often turn into more special life content production relationships and tech builds and where we can directly commission new and exclusive paid content for culinary partners. And we really want to reach out to our micro influencers first. So when you think about it, when you think about like old kitchen brands like LG or Samsung or Brigade or something, you know, a lot of the times like, you know, they have an oven, but the smart kitchen space is a really new space. And you know, having recipe content is like what they're missing. And so, you know, they're just trying to get content that's a product fit for this new product that maybe it's niche, maybe it's niche now, but it's not always going to be. And so they need for recipes that people are going to actually cook.

So point being, there's these companies, LG or whatever, home company, and they need content to backfill some of these new smart devices they're creating, but they need somebody to help create those. And sideshef Collective, it sounds like, is potentially helping to fill that gap by connecting brands and creators.

Yeah, so one of our best test cases was so we risked recently, you know, had launched a partnership with Panasonic. And you know, Panasonic is a huge brand obviously, like, you know, it's Japanese brand that's like global. And we activated a really cool partnership with one of our culinary partners, Belki's Twist. So I met Belki last year at the Everything Food Conference. And you know, just really do like, you know, she has a, a great blog, you know, kind of Dominican Latin classic recipes. And, you know, she's really growing her brand. And you know, we, I kind of label her as like, you know, the partner with potential. And so we kind of, you know, and so Panasonic is launching, launched these new series of microwave ovens, is really looking for a vibrant and relatable culinary partner of side chefs to really develop recipes for their new products. And you know, and so we were able to launch this week and we. So it's 14 recipes using this micro Panasonic device. And, you know, you can find the recipes on side chef. And this is a real, this was a really great situation where we were able to put a micro influencer with arguably the largest, you know, brand, one of the largest brands in the world. And, you know, put them in front because they were a great fit for this, this project. And so we want to keep doing more of those things. We are doing more of those things where we're looking for opportunities for people that are partners. Some people have been with us since the beginning. And so now that these opportunities are coming to us, we want to share back to them and make it a win win because I think everyone wins in that situation. And we so also in line with the IPSI model, we do also want to create more resources for content because it allows us to, you know, help help people grow and also provide education and networking opportunities. Like I said before, you know, really giving people data, insights. We do are offering more and more. We're sending out newsletters where people really helping people understand what engagement is like, who is the side chef, home cook, how do they approach recipe content? What do they like more, what do they like less? You know, why are they making cocktails on a Saturday morning? You know, and also create a forum where we have candid conversations about, you know, what their needs are, what their pain points are and really try to give them the resources that they need to handle that. Like, you know, you know, with COVID you know, a lot of people, you know, they had a lot of setbacks. And so we also, we want to create, put everyone in a situation where, you know, no matter where they are, they can continue to create great content. And so we're looking at ways of creating more opportunities for that. And so we want to create a dialogue as well. And because it's a community, like, I think when you're sharing recipes, there's an inherent willingness to share. And we have people, there's so much experience. And our partner network is also global. Our food influencers are from all over the world, from Egypt to San Francisco to South Africa. So, you know, and a lot of people there are a business of one. And so, you know, that supportive environment, that's kind of the idea of the Side Chef collective as well. You know, to sharing resources between them even that's just knowledge to really empower them as well. So creating a space where that can exist.

That is awesome. And it sounds like something that a lot of people who listen to the podcast might be interested in. Sandy, as we come to the end here, can you share for people who want to dig in a little bit more, who want to learn more about what that is, where they can do to where they can go to find out more and then we can link to that in the show notes as well.

Yeah, you can learn more@sideshow.com content partners or if you want to know more about becoming a culinary partner, you can send an email to me@sandysidechef.com awesome.

Well, like I said, link to that in the show notes. Sandy, you are a saint for showing up at 5am to do an interview. So appreciate it and hope that today you can either go to bed early, work in a nap or drink lots of coffee, one of those things. But thanks so much for coming on, sharing a little bit about side Chef. I know that people have mentioned it has come up before, so it's been great to dig into that a little bit more and obviously if people have more questions they can reach out to you. But really appreciate you coming on the podcast.

Andy, thank you so much. This was so much fun at 5am it was a wake up.

It's the most fun you've had at work at 5am, which I would say probably is a pretty low bar. Probably pretty low bar, but we'll take it nonetheless. So thanks Andy.

And that's a wrap on this episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast. Thanks again for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this interview with Sandy and that you learned a little bit more about side Chef, any of the resources that she mentioned in today's episode or be linked in the show notes for this episode@foodbloggerpro.com 280. I also wanted to let you know about a really exciting sale that we're having on Food Blogger Pro next week. It starts on Monday, Cyber Monday and goes all the way to December 3rd, which is that Thursday. So it's a four day sale and it helps you get a Food Blogger Pro membership for less than a dollar a day. It's a yearly membership for 279. Right now our price for a yearly membership is $350, so you're saving over $70 with this deal. It's a fantastic deal and if you want a clear, mapped out strategy, step by step directions, instructional videos, and an awesome community who will help and support you along the way, we really encourage you to check out Food Bugger Pro and this deal. You'll learn more about this deal in next week's podcast episode, but you can also join our email list to get information if you're interested Interested in signing up? If you go to our homepage@foodbloggerpro.com There's a big email opt in right there in the middle of the page where you can get a free Download. It's actually 16 ways you can monetize your site and if you do that, you'll be put on our email list and you will be notified first thing on Monday when this sale goes live. We are so excited and if you have any questions, feel free to email me personally@alexaoodbloggerpro.com I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have, but I wanted to give you a quick little sneak peek for being part of our Food Blogger Pro podcast community. It's the best deal that we offer all year, so we're super excited about it and we hope you are too. On that note, that does it for us this week, my friend. For all of you in the us, we hope that you have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. It's going to be different this year, but we hope that you enjoy it nonetheless and we'll see you next time, which is next Tuesday and until then make it a great week.